Mitchell retired from GM in 1977, and left a parting memorial to his love for the long, sleek, nostalgic and racy. He knew it was the (temporary) end of the road for his kind of car: “Realizing that with the energy crisis and other considerations, the glamour car would not be around for long. I wanted to leave a memory at General Motors of the kind of cars I love”. As well as a memory of a whole raft of Mitchell-era production cars: Toronado, Riviera, Firebird, Grand Am, etc… Any more?

Here’s Bill with his baby. Don’t know if it was given to him as a parting gift, though.

To Edward’s point, it is there, it is real, and it is awesome. I remember seeing it at the Sloan Museum in Flint’s Cultural Center in the 80’s and reading about how it was just a rolling chassis and wondering how they pushed it in there. A truly stunning styling study.

Here’s Bill with his baby. Don’t know if it was given to him as a parting gift, though.

Judging from the heavy tint on all windows including the windshield, my guess is that this is just a pushmobile.

I thought that Mitchell did take home a concept car as a retirement gift, and later GM bought it back from his estate and had it crushed. I could have him confused with Harley Earl in that story though.

While this definitely has a Pontiac inspired beak on the hood, it reminds me of the Caddy V12 and V16 concepts of the 60’s, such as XP-840. The flowing upper bodyline with the sharp dip near the back of the door says Buick to me though.

I’m seeing Toronado, a little boat-tail Riviera and (yes, with the windows) some SVX; the red wheel wells remind me of Louboutin shoes. (Er, not that I personally wear said shoes. I live with a woman who covets them.)

The way I seem to remember it at the time, I think by reading it in Car and Driver, was that he indeed got to take it home. I was like 12, but I remember thinking that was the coolest looking car ever, like the ultimate ’66 Riviera.

I read the article when I was in high school and it did say that Mitchell took this car home with him at retirement.
I have runs several web searches over the years looking for this photo again just because of that article.
Great to see this again.

Windows-within-windows really stink. The DeLorean’s were the worst of the worst, though. I think everyone on here knows how I feel about windows opening, so I won’t repeat myself! The car is pretty cool, though. Riviera/Gran Prix/Toronado all mushed into one. Kind of weirdly reminds me of an old toy gun set where the weapon was something like 7 weapons in one! No, I never had one, either. All-in-one printers, anyone?

Its like a Toronado-Firebird-Corvette. I wonder if it is a real car or a pusher, I’ve never seen any photos of the interior, it looks like it might be based on a shortened Toronado/Eldorado FWD chassis.

Thanks, Paul. A little more sleuthing even showed the picture (dated ’77) purchase-able from GM’s website, and that most everyone online credited it (correctly) to ’77. Oddly, though, I couldn’t find any sort of mention in the newspapers of the time.

May I also say that the (female) models pictured looked distinctively “late ’70s” rather than 1973-ish?

Also, I’ll add myself to those who were kinda crushed to learn that such show/concept cars were typically “rollers” rather than “drivers.” Another youthful fantasy shot to hell…

Bill Mitchell was known to drive the hand built show cars home frequently but this one was not a “runner”. It was was designed in the top secret advanced design studio “x”. It was known as the Madame X within the studios – I am not sure if that was it was ever referred to that name in public.
That car was not given to Bill Mitchell on retirement and GM still has that car in its collection. It’s only been rare occasions it’s been shown to the public. It was frequently on display within the GM design center, Warren Michigan or in the lobby of the same building. I worked in the design center for 9 years and loved to see these cars up close – this one being a favorite that was kept outside the Pontiac studios when we worked on new Grand Prix designs.

Don – It would be great to share some bits about the GM experience as a sculptor. I worked on projects in most every brand studio – three of the brands no longer exist. How should I go about submitting any articles?

There’s a “Submissions” option on the black menu bar along the top of the CC page. That has all the info. Or just send it to curbsideclassic(at)gmail.com. Please don’t embed pictures into the text document; attach them separately to your e-mail.

The Aerovette had a similar windshield with the crease down the middle. That was an actual drivable vehicle originally developed in the early 1970s when GM was also developing a 4-rotor Wankel engine, which was intended for this car. The Wankel was shelved and the Aerovette was fitted instead with a 400 cu.in. small block, which is mounted transversely ahead of the rear wheels.

As to whether it was a distraction, before 1955 or so, many cars had two-piece windshields which were separated by a sizable metal strut running from the cowl to the roof. America survived something in the middle of the windshield then without catastrophe enveloping the nation’s roadways.

I don’t know how the windshield was made with the crease, but on the 1977 Impala 2-door coupes, the back glass had creases on both sides. From what I understand, the back glass was cast flat, but there were wires inserted in the glass before it was cast. Once the flat piece of glass had cooled, the wires in the corner had an electrical current applied, which caused the wires to heat up sufficiently so that a zone of soft glass was created around the wires. The center of the glass was held and I believe the ends were then bent to the final shape, and the glass was allowed to harden for final installation on the car.

The wiki on Mitchell says he started at GM in ’35, and credits him with influence on cars starting in ’38. He spent 19 years at the top design post ending in ’77. The Mitchell era was very long.

This car is sort of an anti shear look recap of many styling cues from his time. Mitchell had a thing for nostalgia and classic elements in his designs, and it is interesting to see that by ’77 he was able to tap some of his own work as classic elements.

There is definitely Riviera, Grand Prix, Eldorado, and Firebird in this car. I’ll add 1954 Buick Skylark (especially the wheel wells). The number one influence seems to be the 1973 Pontiac Grand Am……..

This always reminded me of the Phantom Corsair (probably intentional given the name). I always did like the style, as a sort of neoclassical take on a sports car without the tacky, overly literal elements of most neoclassics.

Mitchell had a tough act to follow replacing the legendary Harley Earl. He not only succeded, but IMHO surpassed his mentor. Looking back, many of the Earl designs now look cartoonish, while Mitchell’s seem timeless. All of his styling seemed to have a theme and just worked so well. The ’63 Riviera may have been the best of them all.